Endangered Species: Save Our Species Information

The loss of a single species from its ecosystem affects other species that rely on it. The disappearance of one plant species may affect an entire food chain, starting with insects that live or feed on the plant, moving on to the birds and frogs that eat the insects, and ending with the larger animals like snakes, hawks, and foxes that prey on the birds and frogs.

Over 1,300 different species in the United States are listed as endangered or threatened. When people use pesticides to kill weeds, insects, and other pests, they can also harm other plants and animals that are not considered to be pests. That is why the EPA has a program to protect threatened and endangered species from pesticides that might be harmful. 

Many people think that animals like whales, fish, and wolves are the only endangered species. However, there are endangered or threatened species of shrimp, frogs, butterflies, grasses, spiders, fish, clams, snails, turtles, birds, orchids, squirrels, mice, deer, bats, and cacti.

Click on the pictures below to learn more about these endangered species. The plants and animals shown here are not necessarily threatened by pesticides; however, they are examples of of the many different species EPA is protecting.